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I had a C64 and my mom bought me a CompuServe starter kit at some point in the 80's. I think it was something like $6 an hour off-peak and over $20 an hour duri

I had a C64 and my mom bought me a CompuServe starter kit at some point in the 80's. I think it was something like $6 an hour off-peak and over $20 an hour during peak hours, which might not even include long distance charges depending on where you were. That would be $20 an hour off-peak and over $60 peak in today's dollars. For 300 bits per second. For practical purposes, the internet did not exist for people like me until the mid-90's.

mattl 5y ago
For practical purposes smartphones don't exist for a lot of people today, but we're not saying we're in the pre-smartphone era.
- rufus_foreman 5y ago
  If a smartphone cost a dollar a minute to use, we would be saying we're in the pre-smartphone era. Edit: sorry, per minute, not per hour.
  - mattl 5y ago
    I'm sure there are places in the world where a smartphone basically costs way more than that. Just because your access was a dollar an hour, does not mean it didn't exist.
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
University access.
- rufus_foreman 5y ago
  My mom worked at a university when she bought me the C64 and the starter kit. Towards the end of this period, I was going to university. We did not have that type of access.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Some doubtless had access to the Internet in the late 70s/early 80s but random students generally did not even at universities that were connected to the Internet. When I was in school I remember someone at the AI Lab printing out a long Usenet thread related to Star Wars but I certainly didn’t have access. Indeed, outside of one class, I barely used a computer undergrad even as a non-CS engineering major.
jazzyjackson 5y ago
Out of curiosity, what kind of hardware/software was included in a CompuServe starter kit?
- rufus_foreman 5y ago
  Hopefully someone else can answer this better than I can, but from what I remember, there was no hardware included. You had to buy an old style modem separately, like something out of Wargames. Then you got software that allowed you to connect along with an hour of connection time.

mattl 5y ago

For practical purposes smartphones don't exist for a lot of people today, but we're not saying we're in the pre-smartphone era.

rufus_foreman 5y ago
If a smartphone cost a dollar a minute to use, we would be saying we're in the pre-smartphone era. Edit: sorry, per minute, not per hour.
- mattl 5y ago
  I'm sure there are places in the world where a smartphone basically costs way more than that. Just because your access was a dollar an hour, does not mean it didn't exist.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

University access.

rufus_foreman 5y ago
My mom worked at a university when she bought me the C64 and the starter kit. Towards the end of this period, I was going to university. We did not have that type of access.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Some doubtless had access to the Internet in the late 70s/early 80s but random students generally did not even at universities that were connected to the Internet. When I was in school I remember someone at the AI Lab printing out a long Usenet thread related to Star Wars but I certainly didn’t have access. Indeed, outside of one class, I barely used a computer undergrad even as a non-CS engineering major.

jazzyjackson 5y ago

Out of curiosity, what kind of hardware/software was included in a CompuServe starter kit?

rufus_foreman 5y ago
Hopefully someone else can answer this better than I can, but from what I remember, there was no hardware included. You had to buy an old style modem separately, like something out of Wargames. Then you got software that allowed you to connect along with an hour of connection time.